The Clare People Archive

CLARE hurler Tony Carmody has urged GAA fans to log on to the new ESB/GAA website www.culgreen.ie to help make Croke Park carbon neu- tral. Clare fans will also be in with the chance to win All-Ireland Final match tickets and €20,000 invest- ment in the county’s juvenile clubs. From today, fans and the public can log onto www.culgreen.ie to access details of how they can support the Cul Green environmental initiative by making energy saving pledges.

Prizes will be made to individual fans pledging on the website, includ- ing match tickets.

The website gives details of the level of carbon that can be offset through simple everyday tasks and encour- ages fans to travel to Croke Park at minimum cost to the environment by using public transport, park and ride and car pooling.

Cul Green was launched in May this year and since then Croke Park has contracted its electricity supply from a renewable source and envi- ronmental projects are ongoing at

the stadium.

As part of the Cul Green initiative, a grant of €20,000 will be made to the county that makes the most carbon-saving pledges per head of population. This prize money will fund sports equipment for juvenile clubs in the winning county. Further prizes will be made to individual fans who make a pledge on the Cul GTM (eli Ker

that there is no proof that the vaccine is effective five years after inocula- tion, and studies supporting it for that period of time have been carried out solely by the drug companies supply- ing the vaccine.

‘At the time these girls can be sexu- ally active they are left wondering if it is working, and if they will need a booster.”

The experienced practice nurse,

who is an advocate of vaccination and cancer screening programmes, also has reservations that just 50 per cent of the population are being vac- cinated against HPV, the sexually transmitted infection that affects 80 per cent of the population – male and eet N ee

The Kilmihil nurse said that if the vaccine is to go ahead both genders should be treated, so as to interrupt the transition of the HPV virus and ensure true community immunity. As well as contributing to cervical cancer HPV also contributes to rare cancers such as penile cancer and anal cancer in men. These cancers are also more common in men that have sex with other men, leaving men without the vaccine exposed.

Ms Harty believes that the vaccine

programme should be postponed un- til the cervical screening service has been rolled out nationwide and more is understood about the three-course injection available in Ireland since PAU ies

“Vaccination does not mean that screening will cease in the future, that will have to continue so I be- lieve it is more important to use the finances to get the programme rolled out nationwide first. Then wait a few years until the vaccine has been prov- en elsewhere,” she said. “The time is not right for a knee jerk reaction.”

“There is no epidemic of cervical cancer. More women die from breast cancer, and more women in Ireland die from heart disease than breast cancer and cervical cancer together,’ she said.

In research for a paper she is writ- ing, Ms Harty studied New Zealand, which has a similar population to Ireland.

“There they decided not to run with the vaccine programme,” she said.

The nurse believes that if the vac- cine is so powerful that it should be supplied almost immediately to the developing world where no screen- ing is available and where 80 per cent of the world’s cervical cancer deaths occur.

This 1s one of the few points of view that Ms Harty and the drug companies supplying one of the HPV vaccines are likely to agree on.

In its information on its HPV vac- cine GlaxoSmithKline said “lack of screening makes the need for a vac- cine against cervical cancer even

more pressing.”

Ms Harty believes that as a screen- ing service will be required in Ireland even post vaccine that the funding for the vaccine should be used instead to ensure a nationwide cervical screen- ing programme.

The pilot cervical screening serv- ice was rolled out in the mid-west in 2000. In 2008 the service still has not reached women outside Clare, Bile. e-iCw ulm Blnoe-vay

Under the service the Irish Cancer Screening Programme provided free Smear tests to 20,278 women each year.

The uptake among eligible women was 62.2 per cent last year. The de- tection rate of women with invasive cancer was 1.5 per cent while 3.7 per cent were referred for a colposcopy.

THE Department of the Environ- ment has made a late intervention in a bid to prevent a proposed €50 million retail park on the outskirts of Ennis from proceeding.

It was thought that the way was clear for the contentious €50 mil- lion planning application by Stephen Harris to proceed after a report con- firmed the disappearance of a rare protected butterfly, the Marsh Fri- WUUC-DMYape Keyed mM elomSI Ken

After two years deliberating on the application, Clare County Coun- cil is due to make a decision on the plan proposed for a 48 acre com- mercially zoned site at Skehanagh, Clarecastle.

However, the Department of the Environment has made a last ditch move to stop the retail park from proceeding after telling the council that it is recommending that “plan- ning permission not be granted”.

Already, the council has favoured the Harris proposal over a rival planning retail park for the Quin Road area which was refused last year.

However, in its new submission, the department states that the ap- parent recent loss of an important population of the Marsh Fritillary in this area, which 1s possibly linked

to the failure of mitigation measures associated with the nearby Ennis by-pass, is a matter of serious con- cern that has yet to be investigated and pursued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

The department goes on to state that the reports provided do not ad- dress adequately the serious con- cerns raised in respect of key nature conservation issues at the site.

“The proposed development is lo- cated in an area of active floodplain associated with the River Fergus and floods significantly. It is located close to the Lower River Shannon Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a flood assessment of the site and the proposed development, tak- ing into account cumulative effects of other development, is lacking.

“The proposed development will result in significant biodiversity losses in terms of wetland habitats of ecological value and invertebrate populations, including permanent losses of local extinction of the EU Habitats Directive species, the Marsh Fritillary butterfly.

“Permitting the development would be contrary to the aims of the EU Habitats and Birds Directive and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable develop- ment of the area,’ the department submission concludes.

THE big winner in Shannon losing its ‘stop-over’ status to the United States is Dublin Airport according to the lat- est figures where Shannon has lost 10 per cent of the market share of trans- atlantic traffic.

Confirming the gloomy predictions that Dublin would profit at the expense of Shannon in an Open Skies environ- ment, figures for the first six months show that Dublin Airport increased its transatlantic traffic by a whopping 36 per cent or 206,000 to 820,000.

Full Open Skies was introduced at the end of March and figures provided by the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) from January to June show that the numbers of the transatlantic routes has dropped from 325,438 in 2007 to 262,858 — a drop of 19 per cent.

The figures show that Dublin has in- creased its market share of the trans- atlantic market from 65 per cent to 75 per cent in the first six months of this year while Shannon has seen a corol- lary decline going down from 35 per cent to 25 per cent.

The advent of Open Skies however has seen an overall increase of 8.8 per cent in the transatlantic market and the SAA will be looking to increase its market share in the upcoming years having predicted an initial drop in transatlantic traffic.

The figures showing the DAA prof- iting from Open Skies continues a pattern of other State-owned airports taking advantage of Shannon’s diffi- culties.

The decision by Aer Lingus to end its London Heathrow route from last January has resulted in a drop of 16 per cent or 57,000 for the first six months on London routes on last year’s figure.

However, the main beneficiaries to Shannon losing the Heathrow route the Cork Airport Authority (CAA) which has enjoyed a 13.5 per cent increase on its London Heathrow service, going from 224,669 for the first six months of last year to 255,000 from January to June this year.

In its traffic figures, the DAA also announced that passenger through- put at Dublin Airport exceeded 11.3 million for the first six months of the Merle

Fine Gael TD, Joe Carey said yes- terday that the figures are a huge con- cern. “The transatlantic market has been very good to the local economy over the years. It is disappointing that the Government didn’t invest in the €53 million economic and tourism plan. That would have resulted in a huge amount of marketing, but instead of the €53 million, all that was re- ceived was €3 million for the west of Ireland,” he said.

NEWLY released figures for the first six months of the contentious Bel- fast Heathrow service show that it is more than 50,000 passengers below the numbers from Shannon for the same period last year.

It is now a year since Aer Lingus announced its controversial move to abandon its Shannon Heathrow serv- ice and transfer the lucrative slots to Belfast.

Figures provided by the UK Civil Aviation Authority show that be- tween January and June, 109,309

used the new Belfast link compared to the 169,999 passengers that used the Shannon-Heathrow link during the same period last year — a differ- ential of 33 per cent.

22,102 passengers used the Bel- fast Heathrow service in June while 32,111 used the Shannon Heathrow service in June 2007.

Overall figures for the first six months show that Aer Lingus has se- cured only 10 per cent of the Beltfast- Heathrow service and are now offer- ing seats for free excluding taxes and airport charges during August in a bid to boost passenger numbers.

An Aer Lingus spokesman said the airline had a load factor of 74 per cent during July on its Belfast Hea- throw service and the Belfast base is expected to be profitable by the end of the year.

BMI is Aer Lingus’ sole rival on the Heathrow route with the UK- owned airline flying 219,512 passen- gers from January to May this year which is 132,215 passengers more than Aer Lingus.

The figures show that Aer Lingus passenger numbers are on an upward trend going from 17,520 in its first full month of service in February to VOU OAM lb ier

The Aer Lingus decision to end its Heathrow link resulted in Shannon experiencing a 16 per cent loss of 57,000 on London routes for the first six half of this year.

A spokesman for Aer Lingus workers at Shannon said the figures confirmed that the decision by Aer Lingus management to abandon Shannon and move to Belfast where there was an already saturated mar- ket was a bad commercial decision.

At a Dail Transport Committee last month, Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion said he regretted the damage caused to the airline’s reputation in the Shannon last year, adding that they had not ruled out future short-haul operations from Shannon.

CLARE’S Under 18 camogie team are just 60 minutes away from an All-Ireland final. That is how the Banner girls will be approaching the semi-final fixture this weekend. Clare play Tipperary on Saturday in what is hoped will be a double bill of Under 18 semi-finals with Kilkenny and Cork also vying for a spot in the NUON

Clare are facing into this game well prepared as a group and while they have every reason to be quietly con- fident going into the fixture they will be prepared to fight to the end and will be leaving no stone unturned in their final preparations this week.

Clare have had the better of the ex- changes over Tipperary throughout the last number of years and on that form along with vast improvements this year Clare will be hoping to con- tinue in that frame.

Clare will not be without their own difficulties though as they look to be without the presence of Roisin McMahon and Niamh Martin. Both have been starting in the Banner’s rearguard with McMahon dominat- ing the center back position in all the games so far and Martin shoring up on the right corner.

Stephanie Moloney who had a very strong game against Galway may also be in doubt for the tie as she picked up a groin strain in the

first round of the championship with Broadford, when they were defeated by Newmarket. These changes will have to be accounted for when the management of Fintan McNamara, Eamon O’Loughlin, Maura Sheedy, Kevin Halpin and Davy Fitzgerald sit down to finalise the team towards the end of the week.

Clare haven’t played a game since the overwhelming defeat over Gal- way in Clareabbey on July 2. That was Clare’s third win (Antrim and Cork being the others) and with a walkover in the final round to Dub- lin, top position in the group had been secured.

The long lay off since that Galway game will be the only worry for the

panel going in to this tie. But prepa- rations have gone well and the posi- tive attitude to the training sessions will help in bringing the final prepa- rations together. The win over Cork in the early stages also gave Clare a much coveted Munster Final win and with the attitude shown on that day coupled with the desire of this bunch to go further, this should be enough to bring Clare to the final.

Team wise, Susan Vaughan in goal has been very dependable this year with a strong defensive unit outside her. Aine O’Brien and Chloe Morey have held the midfield area comfort- ably and with Niamh Corry, Shona Enright and a fit Stephanie Moloney Clare have a very strong center for-

ward line that will cause trouble.

Inside, Carina Roseingrave will captain the side from the full for- ward line and Roisin O’Brien and Aoife Griffin have been working very hard this year. With Martin and McMahon looking likely to miss the game, there will be room for the re- turn of Aiveen O’Shea who missed the Galway game. There could also be room for Eimear Considine, with Mary Clune, Michelle Caulfield and possibly Aisling Hannon also in the running these can be ready for action either way as the strong Clare panel should have enough in the tank to overcome the challange of Tipper- ae

THE 2008 Galway Races will once again be remembered for the remark- able achievements of Dermot Weld who won the leading trainer award for the 22nd year while also record- ing a landmark 200th winner at the Ballybrit track on Wednesday.

But it will also be remembered in Cooraclare for Thursday’s success of the Thomas O’Doherty owned Skip Two ridden by Barry Cash came home to victory at 9/1 in the Guin- ness Novice Steeplechase.

Weld ended the week with ten win- ners for the fifth time at Galway hav- ing made a flying start to the meet- ing with an impressive four winners on the opening day of the seven-day festival. Bookmakers were running for cover after two more winners on both Tuesday and Wednesday and Weld must have been a short price after the first three days to set a new

Galway record of more than ten win- ners but, much to the relief of the lay- ers, he drew a blank on Thursday and DUCA A

The highlight of Weld’s opening day four-timer came in the feature race, the GPT Amateur Handicap, where Majestic Concorde ran out a convincing winner under Robbie McNamara. Given a fine ride by the stylish amateur, the 7/1 chance went for home on the uphill climb and he stayed on strongly to win by four lengths from Power Of Future with Arc Bleu and Fantoche making up the places. This year’s victory con- tinued Weld’s fine record in the two- mile handicap which he first won as a jockey on his father’s Ticonderaga in 1964 while also training and riding Spanner to win the big race in 1972, 1973 and 1975. The other three win- ners which completed the 494/1 four- timer for the ‘King Of Galway’ came from Broad Meaning (/f maiden),

Ghimaar (1m4f handicap) and Battle In Hand (2m bumper).

The bookmakers were left reeling following the William Hill Galway Plate as Oslot proved a hugely popu- lar winner of Wednesday’s feature having been backed from an open- ing show of 11/2 to 11/4 favourite. The €240,000 handicap chase was a long-term target for the Paul Nichol- Is trained six year-old who became only the third British trained winner of the Plate under an exemplary ride from Ruby Walsh. The locally owned Oodachee ran a fine race for connec- tions and trainer Charlie Swan to fin- ish second at 14/1.

The mighty Ansar continued his love-affair with Galway when stay- ing on strongly for Denis O’ Regan to snatch third place from Brave Right. It was another great effort from Der- mot Weld’s twelve-year old who was appearing in his sixth Galway Plate and running at the Ballybrit sum-

mer festival for the tenth consecutive year.

The Guinness Galway Hurdle, the big race on the fourth day, was won by the John Kiely trained Indian Pace who provided his trainer with ample compensation for the absence of the long-time ante-post favourite, King Rama. A good fifth in Monday’s big race, the well-backed 7/1 chance ap- preciated the underfoot conditions under a great ride from 17 year-old Paul Townend who rode the first winner of his career at last year’s fes- tival. Last year’s third placed horse, Eagle’s Pass, ran another fine race to finish second with the well-backed favourite, Northern Alliance, close in third under Ruby Walsh.

In a week that was highlighted by the big race victories for the younger brigade of jockeys, Danny Mullins, Paul Townend and Chris Hayes, 18 year-old jockey Sam James provid- ed Kevin Prendergast with another

big Galway success when guiding the 12/1 chance Almass to win the feature race on the final day, the 7f Michael McNamara premier handi- cap.

Despite the effect of the current economic downturn, there were still some phenomenal attendances and betting figures over the course of the seven days at Galway. The total number of people who paid through the turnstiles for the week was 174,521 which was only a 5% reduc- tion on last year’s attendance figure. Unsurprisingly, the biggest crowd of the week came on Thursday when there was a massive turnout of 46,186 people which was a huge crowd con- sidering the poor weather on Ladies Day. The Tote turnover of almost €7.3 million was down 14% on last year’s figure while Ruby Walsh and Pat Smullen claimed the top jockey prizes with three and six winners re- spectively.

THE young people of north Clare will be toddling off to a brand new eco-friendly creche this September with the opening of the Lisdoonvar- na Community Childcare Centre.

The new créche, which will hold an open day this Saturday, August 9, has been built to be friendly to the environment and includes solar pan- els and environmentally friendly un- der-floor heating.

The creche is the latest develop- ment to come online in the North Clare Sports and Amenity Park. It follows the re-opening of the Pavil- ion “Town Hall’ Theatre last month while a community playground 1s set

to be completed in September.

“We can cater for children from four months and up which will be very useful for people. These days most families have to have both peo- ple employed so it’s very important for people to have good child care,” said Patricia O’Leary-Darcy, man- ager of the new facility.

‘As well as that, a lot of parents job-share so we will do our best to Ie-TOoUDLE-IKommn NOY: I MMR SLO 0 UME N OD KccomrOr:hYAnrO) em three-days-on and things like that. We will try to be as flexible as pos- sible.”

The creche has been built to the highest modern standards, including a number of energy saving devices.

“It’s great to have the solar panels

and the under-floor heating. It has been up and going for a while now and is working well. It’s great to have that bit of independence when it comes to energy,’ continued Patri- cla.

“There is really a great need in the area for a service like this. It’s not just for the people of Lisdoonvarna, we have a lot of interest from all over the region – from Lahinch right up to Ballyvaughan.

“We have a capacity for around 50 kids or the equivalent of 50 full-time children. We could have maybe 60 children attending but some of them could be part-time.

“Because we are a community scheme it means that we get some

funding from the Office of the Min- ister for Children. This means that we can cater for a wide range of peo- ple and offer a range of fees to suit peoples particular circumstances. Anyone who wants more informa- tion on this should contact me and we can discuss all the options avail- able for people.”

For more information on the créche contact Patricia on 065 7075668 or 087 0525986.

THREE young chefs have taken the Ballyvaughan Farmers Market by storm this summer with their very special selection of confectioneries and cakes. The budding bakers are 9- year-old Hannah McDonald, her 11- year-old sister Molly and their friend Aine Fahy who is just 10 years old. For the last two months the young entrepreneurs have been wowing locals and tourists alike, regularly selling out their full stock of cakes NICO MOLISE

“Our mom is really good at baking and she has always been getting us to help out with some baking. We

went on holiday to Kerry and friends of ours were baking for their local market down there. We helped them out and it was really good fun,” said WZ Cold hia

“So we figured we’d give it a go. We were able to bake before that, but we only really started baking seri- ously when we decided to join the market.”

The girls have been involved in eve- ry market this year – a huge achieve- ment considering that all of the work is undertaken on a Friday evening, often after a full day at school.

“We bake all different kinds of cup cakes – we have lemon, chocolate, coconut and vanilla,” said Hannah.

“Tt’s a lot of work, it takes us about five or six hours every Friday. We always do the baking on Friday eve- nings so that everything will be extra fresh for the market.”

The girls, who attend Ballyvaughan National School, became interested in the market when their school was visited by market organiser Tracey Kelly. “I like the selling best I think. The baking is nice too, but when we are doing the selling we get to meet a lot of people. Lots of times people come back and buy more. I think that once they try them they want to have more and more,” said Aine.

“Three people from the market came to visit our school and told us

all about it. They told us that they would like to make a picture to be displayed at the market. We all got interested then and started hanging out at the market.”

The market will continue at St John’s Hall in Ballyvaughan every Saturday from 10am until 2pm. For more information on the market con- tact Tracey Kelly on 065 7076963 or email ballyvaughanfarmersmarket@ eircom.net.

THE madness is about to return to Lisdoonvarna this weekend with the second Road Rocks Lisdoonvarna Fringe concert on Sunday. The open air free gig will begin at 4pm with You’re a Star favourite Onya, which will be followed by Fran E Fray, the T’Zerz and the Sons of Ginger- bread.

The free outdoor concert will take place at the Roadside Tavern in Lis- doon, there the first Lisdoonvarna concert was hosted earlier this sum- noe

“The first one went well, there was

a great cross section of people. At the early part we had a lot of young kids dancing. It was almost a family experience at the beginning and then in the evening we had a different vibe,’ said Peter Curtin of the Road- side Tavern.

“Tt was a bit of a marathon really – when you consider that we had seven and a half hours of music without stopping. We had a nice coming and going of people all day.”

First up on this weekends gig will be Onya, star of this weeks You’re A Star programme.

“Onya is areal heavy hitter – some- thing in a Joni Mitchell. So that

should add something interesting to the gig,” continued Peter.

‘Next up we will have Fran E Fray who is a local woman and this will be her first time ever getting up on the stage. She’ll be doing six num- bers.

‘Following that we have the T’Zerz from Ennis. They have a fairly lively set and should get the crowd going.

‘After that we have Sons of Ginger- bread back, they are the only band who we have back from the first gig. They will finish off the night and play to 11.45pm at the latest. We like to make sure that everything is done and dusted at that stage. It’s nearly

eight hours of music so they are all shagged out after it anyway.”

Like the first Lisdoon Fringe gig, this concert is offered completely free of charge.

‘Human beings are extraordinary. It’s written on the posters that’s it’s free but still some people don’t seem to think that it’s free,’ continued Pe- ter.

“It’s written on the poster and still some people don’t believe it. I think Pll write ‘I swear to God it’s free’ on the next poster. It’s free, free, free.”

The second Lisdoonvarna Fringe open air gig takes place this Sunday, August 10 from 4pm.